Networking for work
By Samuel Ogborn | smh.com.au | 16 January
Can the social-media juggernaut really find you a job? By Joshua Jennings.
It sounds great in theory: create a Twitter account, upload a CV, announce you're in the market for jobs, network with contacts, track CV views and rub your hands together as the job leads roll in.
Yet a Hays Recruitment survey last year found 45 per cent of job seekers don't think social-media networks help. So how practical are they for finding work?
The general manager of research and sourcing for corporate recruitment consultant Insidejob, Martin Warren, believes the poll is more reflective of those using social media than the technology itself.
Job seekers who establish relationships through online conversations with the right contacts create opportunities to develop their careers, Warren says.
"With social media, it's becoming important who knows you, so having a profile online - whether it's on LinkedIn, another social media space, Facebook or a blog - gives other people the ability to engage with that person and understand them and how they can be relevant to them."
An Australasian Talent Conference event in Melbourne last month - Social Media: A Recruitment Revolution - was notable for the opposing opinions it stimulated within the human resources industry. Like Warren, ATC co-founder Trevor Vas is a believer in social media as a job-seeking tool.
"They [job seekers] need to be able to position themselves to create their own identity so they can differentiate themselves from all the other people in the mob," he says. "Without that digital footprint, they're at a significant disadvantage."
A US survey last year by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education on the use of social media in business found a key issue was the capacity of companies to measure the returns on their investment. The results found 84 per cent did not measure those returns.
The product strategy manager at Seek, Jake Andrew, says most job seekers are unlikely to determine their return on investment either and many will abandon social media before benefits emerge.
"You have a lot of profiles that aren't being updated," he says.
MSI Global Alliance's October 2009 quarterly business survey of more than 500 businesses found 43 per cent of small-to-medium enterprises use social-networking sites and tools to assist their businesses in areas such as communication with clients, managing alumni groups and recruitment.
The results found social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn were the most popular (39 per cent use them), followed by forums (12 per cent), blogs (7 per cent), micro-blogs like Twitter (5 per cent) and content communities such as YouTube (3 per cent).
Ernst & Young is one example of a company that backs the capacity of social media to deliver returns on investment. In 2007, it created a new entry point for candidates into the company by enabling them to approach the organisation through its Facebook page.
Candidates now have the opportunity to ask the company questions, have discussions with employees, meet interns and enhance their acquaintance with the company through videos and pictures.
But Andrew remains sceptical that the benefits of using social media as a recruitment tool justify the cost.
"Benefits could be awareness of your brand, awareness of your brand values, more applications, more relevant applications, more hires and appointments and greater performance of hires in the role," he says.
"From the cost side, they need to consider the time it takes to create the social network, the time it takes to maintain it, the IT costs, infrastructure costs and so on and then how much those costs change brand awareness and all those other benefit measures.
"Those who I've spoken to who have done this say it really doesn't add up."
But Vas is adamant about the future of social media in HR, expecting it to "revolutionise" the industry in the next five to 10 years.
"There will always be your traditional approach but let's say we were creating a new restaurant chain and we wanted to recruit 150 young people who were 'with it' and had a certain cultural attribute we wanted," he says.
"I'd be branding and using social media extensively to do that recruitment ... I'd be joining various discussion groups and creating sexy attraction things that align to the type of thing I'm trying to achieve.
"That would be my predominant way of getting people and I think it's only going to grow."
How to use cyber communities
■Research the social media sites used by your industry.
■Research organisations for their pages on social media sites.
■Seek organisations that have expressions of interest.
■Review your digital footprint and ensure it's authentic.
■Be active in the communities.
■Connect to key stakeholders in companies you want to work for.
■Start discussion groups in areas you're interested in.
■Publish papers that get attention.
■Help other people get into social media.According to Trevor Vas
Do you use social media to help with your job search? Tell us at mycareer.com.au/vote.
First published by Smh.com.au on January 16 2010
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